


He Has To Pay

by Alitomy



Series: nile and booker [2]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Family Drama, Gen, and theyre not too happy about it, but a phone call from nile is probably the next best thing, depressed booker needs a hug, the team find out about niles phone calls to booker while hes in exile
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:41:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26082847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alitomy/pseuds/Alitomy
Summary: The team argue with Nile over her phone calls to Booker.
Relationships: Booker | Sebastien le Livre & Nile Freeman
Series: nile and booker [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1893658
Comments: 18
Kudos: 168





	He Has To Pay

Nile closed her burner phone and trekked back to their current safehouse in Osaka, Japan. She knew the only peace she would get from the others was while she went on her morning run, making sure she kept the phone in her pocket before she went. 

She had an important phone call to make. 

Booker was always in the back of her mind. Whether she was worried about him drinking himself to death or trying to visualize him on a mission Andy told the story of, she couldn’t _not_ think of him. 

Nile picked up her jog as the sun began to peek through between the tall buildings of the city, as she had promised she would return to the safehouse before dawn. Cracking open the door, she slipped through into the house and looked around, noticing Joe leaning against the kitchen counter with a cup of tea in his hands. Nodding at him, Nile made her way through the common area of the house towards her bedroom, stopping when Joe’s voice reached her ears. 

“How is he?” 

“Who?” Nile decided to play dumb. Maybe Joe would drop it. 

“Booker,” Joe looked at her over his tea as he took another sip. “You shouldn’t contact him, you know.” 

Nile scoffed and scratched at her arm, restraining herself from a sarcastic comment that Joe may or may not understand. “I’m allowed to talk to him.” 

“That’s not how this works,” Joe said, placing his mug on the counter behind him. “No contact, whatsoever.” 

“Which I didn’t agree to,” Nile crossed her arms, sticking her hip out as she stared him down. In those few moments of silence, Nicky joins them in the kitchen, immediately aware of the tension in the room. 

“Morning, what’s going on?” He greeted, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he made his way over to Joe and giving him a quick kiss before stealing his half-full mug of tea and downing it. 

“Nile is talking with Booker,” Joe mumbled, and Nicky choked slightly before turning to the new immortal. 

“You know you’re not allowed to do that, right?” 

Nile had to pinch her arm hard to stop herself from snapping. She understood that a hundred years was _their_ price for Booker’s betrayal, but it wasn’t hers. She had seen the blatantly clear severe depression the Frenchman was suffering through, and she could only guess that most of that stemmed from losing his family and his dreams of Quynh. She wasn’t going to let him suffer alone for as long as she could. 

“Stop telling me what to do,” Nile huffed and went to continue on her way to her bedroom. 

“Nile!” 

She ignored them and kept walking. 

She wanted to freshen up if they were going to have an argument over this. 

~

When she returned to the common area, Andy had appeared in the kitchen, sitting in her spot at the table. Nursing her own mug of tea, she made eye contact with Nile before nodding at the chair across from her, waiting until she took her seat. Nile noticed Joe and Nicky on the couch a few meters away, watching a trashy soap opera that she knew neither were really paying any attention to. 

“I’m not going to argue with you Andy,” Nile sighed as she sat in the chair, crossing her arms over her chest. 

“Nile, we said no contact,” Andy said as she put her mug down on the coaster. 

“No, _you_ said no contact. I didn’t want to leave him alone for a hundred years, _you did_.” 

“He has to pay. He betrayed two hundred years of trust!”

“Yeah, to you guys. I haven’t known him that long, but a week was enough to see how much he was hurting,” Nile fired back. “You’ve just left a man, who is clinically depressed and unable to die, alone for a _hundred years_. You think he’s just gonna be all better by the time the century is up?” 

“Nile,” Nicky’s voice drifted from the couch, and Nile looked over to him. “It was needed.” 

Nile stood up from her chair and put her hands flat on the table, staring at Nicky and Joe before sliding them to focus on Andy, who sat ever so still in her own chair. “By you. It was needed by you. What I need, is to make sure he is okay and he stays okay, and I’m doing that by calling him. If any of you guys try to stop me by taking my burners or something, then I’ll just visit him in Paris and truly break the 'no contact' bullshit. It’s really your call.” 

She watched as the three of them looked at each other, more silent conversations being had right in front of her. Scoffing, she made her way to the front door and dug the phone out of her pocket. 

“If it’s any consolation prize, I’ll make sure Booker knows what you all think of our arrangement. That’ll really be the final nail in the coffin,” Nile snapped and rolled her eyes before walking out, slamming the door shut behind her as she stalked through the city. 

She wasn’t going to let Booker spend his hundred-year exile alone. The others might need the time, but she didn’t. She was going to try to be there for him as much as possible, and she was going to put up a hell of a fight if the others tried to stop her. 

Bringing the phone up to her ear, the steady dial tone reminded her to take a few deep breaths before the phone was answered. 

“Nile? It’s only been a few hours, are you okay?” Booker’s voice came through the line, and she laughed softly. 

“Yeah yeah, I’m fine. I just needed a break.” 

“Wow, so soon? Do I need to remind you you’re stuck with them until the end of time?” Booker’s voice sounded lighter, as if he was smiling, which made Nile smile too. 

“Yeah yeah yeah,” she dismissed. “And hopefully you’ll be there beside me until the end of time.” 

Silence from the other end of the line made her immediately regret those words before her rationale reminded her that this is probably what they both needed to hear. 

“God, Nile,” Booker sounded tired now, and Nile was reminded that it was late evening in France. She really needed to get a better understanding of timezones. “Why do you feel the need to make me so emotional. I’m trying to sleep.” 

Hearing the laughter in his voice, the tension in Nile’s shoulders dropped and a smile appeared on her face. Letting out a small chuckle, she took a moment to choose her next words, skipping over the desire to mention what the others had implied about their phone calls. 

‘Just reminding you that you still have family that wants to make sure you’re okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> i caved. i wasnt originally gonna do a sequel bit for 'we're not meant to be alone', but a tumblr anon ask has been stuck in my head for a few days, and here it the end result. not too dramatic but enough :-)
> 
> follow me on tumblr: alit0my


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